Project Perseus: The Medusa Killer

We’ve (and I mean that in reference to the industry collective that has been working on this for the better part of the last year) identified the cause–we haven’t released a write up with proof of identification of the cause, which is what I believe the gripe is. We know what contaminants need to be remediated to solve the problem and developed a filter to do so.

4 Likes

That’s true, but then at least admit that’s what’s happening here. I just want proof where they say they found it.

So there’s the ‘proof’. We all encountered a problem, that no one has successfully identified, and now we’re trying a laundry list of solutions since we still can’t make heads or tails of what the target contaminant is?

My beef is with this preaching the presence of amines or methanol with zero analytical evidence and still without a clear workaround which suggests the ‘identification’ might not be accurate at all. Oh, and with the claim they would present said analytical evidence.

I generally wouldn’t tell you the sky is blue until I’d verified it was in fact blue by throwing a few attempts at a wall and finding one that sticks, repetitively.

10 Likes

Understood.

Sounds like a band-aid solution to me. What really needs to be done is some good ol’ root cause analysis — identification is not enough. Our community needs to know how this occurs and why…

While I appreciate the forum possibly benefiting from your filter (regardless of the source of the problem), I can’t help but to feel like this is gatekeeping.

3 Likes

It is 100% a band aid solution. But a band aid solution we’ve invested into developing. We’re investing in a permanent solution as well–to build a facility from the ground up that will include this processing (and multiple others) to ensure customers are getting the clean gas they’re paying for. Like I said above, though, that is months away and even when online, we’d like those that don’t buy our gas to have a solution.

3 Likes

Adding methanol to alternate hydrocarbons does produce medusa-like features.

Amine scrubbing units are not new in refining petroleum products.

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. So now we get to the last part, verifying and testing the experiment/hypothesis. Science!

7 Likes

…then it at least warrants a closer look to see if it’s a swan or a goose or a duck for sure.

8 Likes

I’m all for throwing shit at the walls in hopes of finding some that sticks!!

Its much better than just complaining and hoping someone else figures it out.

The levels of these contaminates in the gas are so low its a challenge to test the gas for it, most people are using medias to accumulate the contaminate to a detectable level and testing the media. this cartridge would at least capture contaminates and if the gas was clean after using the filter then that filter could be analyzed for the said contaminates. maybe its capturing more than just the amine and methanol, only time will tell.

8 Likes

The filters will retain some degree of hydrocarbons when spent as well.

1 Like

This is very interesting. What percentage of labs do you estimate are having this issue nationwide?

4 Likes

Couldn’t tell you—but we’ve heard of at least one problem from every supplier. It’s an up chain contamination so it’s certainly nationwide. It’ll be interesting to see how the filters sell as labs seem to be experiencing it at different levels/intensities, some are already remediating/working around in house, and some look at it as a positive rather than a negative.

We certainly thought it was widespread and problematic enough to put the energy into developing a fix for it. Hope that wasn’t in vain :man_shrugging:t2::crossed_fingers:.

6 Likes

what general concentration do yall estimate the avg wtfamine being in the gas ? PPB range? I know its highly variable- folks clogging columns with crystals likely having the highest concentration of fast crash contaminant. *Not familiar with this analysis and detection limit.

3 Likes

no clue because we dont have a standard to test against here, however @Graywolf did say he has found one and it was being sent to us soon.

7 Likes

I certainly believe I found MeOH in at least one of our gas samples. I also have an unidentified peak when injecting the head space from our “spent” remediation media.

I don’t really believe I’ll be able to see diethanolamine in the head space from our gas samples (suspect conc is too low), but I’m certainly gonna look. I’m hoping that we can capture and concentrate the culprits in our media…

We’ve got new media & standards incoming.

8 Likes

I’ll be finding out all the mystery peaks here soon I had in the test I’ve done with the help and introductions from @SolventDirect_BigM .

6 Likes

These filters will run 900-1.1k lbs. of gas so there should be a good concentration to test when one is spent.

7 Likes

Excited to see how these do and I think coming together the way we have been as a community sharing our findings with these tests are going to help make this a sure fire tool to put this girl to rest!

7 Likes

Would very much like to be done with this issue so we can go back to all the other ones lmao.

4 Likes

Is it only proprietary until a quality assurance person needs to verify things in their supply chain, and then they ask for a COA to validate what has or hasn’t interacted with the solvent they’re using?

If its patent pending, its quite likely there’s already a patent on it and likely the big oil co’s own it. I’ve been reading ALOT of patents lately and I’m pretty sure every single form of hydrogen ionic bonding inducing polymers or resins are covered in prior art. Just an opinion/anecdote, take it with a grain a salt or as food for thought?

Kudos to a “better” interim solution though, its better than not doing something. Interested to see what the future of our industry will bring with this stuff and the supply chains…

3 Likes

You can probably still get a process patent

2 Likes

Yes.

Our engineer’s company holds a patent on the media itself and we are filing a process patent as soon as this round of manufacturing is complete.

Thanks–I wish we had been in a position to get our facility up and running sooner but I’m glad to have something in the meantime.

2 Likes